Ahead of olive harvest, settlers chop down trees near Nablus

NABLUS (Ma'an) – Extremist Jewish settlers chopped down more than 100 olive trees Saturday morning in Deir Sharaf village south of Nablus, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that settlers from Shave Shomron settlement stormed olive fields in the al-Ghazan neighborhood of Deir Sharaf and destroyed more than 100 trees. He highlighted that the attack came a few days before the olive harvest.

The trees belong to Yasser Fuqaha, Sidqi Fuqaha, Mustafa Fuqaha and other farmers from the Meri family.

On Friday, a mob of settlers assaulted Palestinian farmer Abdul-Rahman Ibrahim Awad while he was picking olives in his field in Jammain village south of Nablus. He was forced to leave the field at gunpoint after the assailants completely destroyed his private vehicle.